Wizard and Zanpakuto Files
by Oreramar
Summary: Oneshots and short scenes from the alternate universe of Wizard and Zanpakuto which never made it into the recorded story.
1. To Speak, or Not To Speak?

**To speak, or not to speak?  
**_Harry's having a little trouble with the release command for Darksun's first form. Takes place before the events of _Wizard and Zanpakuto_, chapter three._

* * *

Harry threw himself to the side, and the asphalt exploded where he'd been standing a moment before. He didn't quite manage to roll the way Darksun taught him, but still regained his feet in time to raise his sword over his head and block a thickly-clawed hand that was bigger than his head.

"I feel stupid!" he shouted out loud.

The hand suddenly retreated, causing Harry to stumble so that he barely dodged the tail that flew toward him an instant later.

"_Keep this up, and you're gonna feel _dead!" an echoing voice responded.

Even if anyone remained on the street by this time – all the humans had fled at the first 'gas explosion' – they wouldn't have heard either voice.

"_Hurry up! You're not strong enough to take this one on sealed. Call out the release already."_

Harry ducked another swipe and looked up at the hollow that towered above him.

It was thick-shouldered and stood hunched over on all fours, something like a dog with hind legs slightly shorter than its front ones. A long, wedge-shaped tail stood straight out behind it, and a bone-white mask which looked like something caught between human and lizard obscured its face. The hollow was big, strong, and probably just as stupid as it looked.

Unfortunately, the apparent lack of intelligence wasn't slowing its movements down any.

The hollow reared up, blocking out the sun, and Harry took the chance to charge forward and slam his dual-edged long sword against the creature's shin. The sharp edge barely made a scratch in the hollow's dark brown hide.

"Can't I shorten it?" Harry begged, ducking the tail again as the hollow spun around.

"_No._"

"You said the phrase for me the first time, so could—"

"_No. First time's an exception. Now that you know it – high jump_—"

Harry did it without question, tucking his legs up so that they cleared the hollow's low hand-swipe. He lashed out immediately, and the tip of his sword scored another thin scratch in the hollow's arm.

"—_now that you know it,_" Darksun continued, "_you need to say it. Every time. Hurry up._"

"You can't be serious," Harry moaned. He dove forward stubbornly, thrusting his sword at the hollow's knee. It missed, and Harry's quick reflexes barely saved him from another street-crushing fist.

"_Dead serious."_

Darksun sounded it, too.

"_Release before you die, already. I am _NOT_ going through the headache of getting you to listen _again_."_

The hollow was getting a headache as well, apparently. Roaring fit to wake the dead – though they had probably all cleared out after the first explosion as well – it rushed forward, swiping alternately with both hands.

Harry ducked the first blow, jumped back to avoid the second, and was just getting set to attack through an opening the last swing left when the first hand came back and struck him forcefully along the side.

The world turned sideways, and Harry was barely aware of the rush of air over him as he flew away. Darksun rose and pressed at something in his soul; Harry felt the red energy rise up and cover him in a thin flicker.

"_Here!"_ Darksun said, and he pressed control of that power into Harry's hands the instant before they hit the ground for the first time.

When he finally bounced and skidded to a halt, there were five small dents in the road, chips of asphalt were still flying through the air, and the hollow was sniffing and grunting in his direction as though it wasn't quite sure how he'd survived that.

Harry stood up gingerly, releasing his aura and letting it sink back into his soul. He was sore all over, but nothing was broken at least.

"Thanks," he muttered, climbing out of the pothole his body had just made and taking a stance on firmer ground.

"_You wouldn't have needed the help,_" Darksun almost growled, _"if you'd just released me the first time I said to._"

"But…it just feels _stupid_."

The hollow had figured out that Harry was, indeed, still alive. It was now pondering (slowly) whether or not it should attack again.

"_Yeah, 'cause you've got such a big audience right now."_

"That's not the point," Harry protested.

The hollow gave up on thinking and just lumbered toward him again, red eyes burning behind the mask.

"_Here he comes. You've still got a moment, so do it quick._"

"Seriously, Dark, what kind of idiot _poses_ and spouts off some line just like that?"

"_What kind of idiot waves a stick around and spouts off nonsense words just like that?"_

Harry thought that was something entirely different, but he was forced to spare the words in favor of blocking the hollow's sudden charge. His sword shook under the pressure, and he grit his teeth, pressing back. Then the hollow threw its weight forward and, for the second time in as many minutes, Harry found himself flying back through the air.

Even with his aura shielding him, the landing was anything but soft.

"_If this kills you, I'm gonna be ticked."_

Harry stood up and fought with himself. On the one hand, Dark was right: this was _bad_. His aura hadn't protected him fully that time; his left shoulder throbbed terribly, and he could feel something wet trickling down across his right temple. On the other…

_You can't be serious_.

But he was. Merlin, he was.

"_Trust me, Harry…it could be a hell of a lot worse._"

He didn't try to imagine how. He didn't argue back. Instead, Harry just sighed and held his sword out to one side, the tip pointing at the ground at an angle.

_You win_, he thought grimly, _but I still feel like a complete idiot doing this._

He said it as quickly as he could in an effort to get it over with.

"Rise-from-death's-shadow-Dark-Sun!"

The sword changed into a katana with a flare of red fire, and Harry instantly felt stronger, more confident, more powerful. His shoulder didn't feel so bad any more, and he barely noticed the feeling of blood across the side of his face.

Harry couldn't stop the smile from erupting.

That hollow suddenly didn't seem so massively tall.

He didn't waste words; in a mere instant, Harry charged forward and swung the katana at the hollow's outstretched hand. This time, the sword bit deep, severing a finger fully before the hollow managed to jerk back, howling in pain.

Not giving it time to recover, Harry jumped up and slammed the black blade downward through the white mask.

The hollow froze mid-scream. Its brown form shimmered away into nothingness, allowing Harry a brief glimpse of the plus soul it had once been – a young man with a look of surprise melting into peace on his features – before that, too, vanished away.

Harry breathed deeply, properly feeling the exhaustion of battle at last. He raised his sword horizontally and placed his left hand on the flat of the blade to feel the faint hum of power in it.

"_Good job."_

Harry smiled wearily. Then, pressing just a little bit, he sealed the katana back into its original form and sheathed it.

_Perhaps_, he reflected as he trudged down the street, bypassing the city vehicles that were just arriving to investigate the explosions, _saying that release command isn't so bad after all_.

Perhaps.

* * *

Bonus for those interested or curious: I have an image up on DeviantArt of Harry (slightly older with shikai release) and a profile view of Dark. Copy, paste, and remove the spaces in the url to see it: http:// oreramar. deviantart. com /art/Wizard-and-Zanpakuto-159277396


	2. For Love of Literature

**For Love of Literature  
**_Harry comes across something in the Hogwarts Library, and Darksun is strangely interested._

Takes place during the events of Wizard and Zanpakuto chapter five / during Harry's first two months in his third year at Hogwarts

* * *

The Hogwarts library was a place for peaceful learning, for reading and research. It was a haven for the academic-minded. For Hermione, it was absolute paradise.

For Ron and Harry, it was nothing more than the torturous promise of more work to do.

"Here, hold these while I go find some more."

Before Ron had time to react, a heavy stack of books was thrust against his chest. He grabbed hold of them on reflex and nearly buckled under the sudden strain. Harry, who was spared only by virtue of being a step behind Ron rather than just to the side or in front of him, couldn't help but laugh at his swearing friend.

"Hermione, we're writing an _essay_ for McGonagall, not an entire new bloody _book_!"

The fierce-looking librarian shushed Ron from her desk. Hermione, apparently ignoring the red-headed boy, marched on down another aisle. Ron juggled his stack, swore more softly, and hurried after her to argue in relative quiet, beyond the eyesight and, hopefully, hearing of Madam Pince.

Left alone with little else to do, Harry wandered at random to the shelves in the corner of the room and began to scan the titles. It soon became apparent that this was the Muggle Studies section, as the cases were filled not only with obviously wizarding titles such as _The Complete Dunce's Guide to Sparks, Plugs, and other Muggle Electrical Gadgetry_ and _Why Petrol was Invented (and Other Speculative Essays)_ but also common muggle cookbooks, instruction manuals, and classic literature. Harry ran a finger over the titles of the latter, recognizing many of them from Language classes at Primary school, though some, such as the works by Dickens, he knew only by reputation, being too young to grasp the difficult wording at the time.

It surprised him when he suddenly felt Darksun's attention sharpen in his mind. Harry's hand stopped, one finger resting on the spine of an old-looking, thin, hard-bound book. He tilted his head to the side and read the ornate lettering carefully.

_Hamlet – William Shakespeare._

Darksun's attention didn't abate. Harry slid his eyes over to the next book in line. _Macbeth – William Shakespeare. _And then the next. _Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare. _The next…_The Tempest, William Shakespeare._ On and on, until the Shakespeares ran out and the books became a series of Grimm fairy tales. Only then did Darksun's focus wane. Harry flicked his eyes back to the Shakespeare titles.

…_interested, Dark?_

It took a few moments for the sword to respond, and when he did, it was in a would-be casual voice.

"_Nah. I'd just heard of them before, so I was curious. That's all._"

Harry grabbed a book at random – _Romeo and Juliet_ – and scanned through the poem at its beginning. He'd read a bit about Shakespeare and his plays himself at Primary school, and wondered if that was where Dark had 'heard of them.' It was possible; the sword only spoke English because he learned it through what he described as an 'information flow' in Harry's mind.

Or perhaps Harry's suspicions were right and Darksun _had_ once been human. He closed the book, tapped his fingers against the cover, and replaced it, pretending to ignore the strange, quiet surge of yearning that washed across his bond with the sword in his soul.

It was obvious; Darksun was _very_ interested in those plays…even a notoriously sappy one like _Romeo and Juliet_. Harry found it odd, personally, that such a tough, violent sort of person could tolerate Shakespeare, let alone enjoy it. You did learn something new every day, it seemed.

_Want me to borrow one?_

"_If you want,"_ Darksun said, evading a personal answer, "_it's fine with me._"

Several aisles over, Harry heard his friends voices rising in argument before the furious hissing of Pince quieted them. He smiled to himself.

_You're pretending not to care, aren't you?_

Silence.

_You don't have to, you know. Not for me, at any rate._

Darksun still didn't answer. Harry's smile fell and he sighed, rolling his eyes instead.

_Which one?_ He asked, reaching for the shelf. His fingers rested on the book he had pulled out previously – the romantic play –waiting patiently for Darksun's answer. At long last, it came, muttered as though Darksun was afraid of being overheard, illogical though it was.

"…_heard Macbeth's a good one. Try that."_

Harry moved his hand to the appropriate book and pulled it down from the shelf, hurrying over to the library's central desk to get it signed out before Hermione could come after him with another mountain of research material.

"_Hey, Harry? When you read it, I might hang out in your head and read along here and there. Just so you know. You good with that?"_

Harry bit back a knowing grin as Pince eyed him before jotting a date in the card set in the back of the muggle book.

_Absolutely, you faker._

And though Harry hadn't ever had much attraction to Shakespeare's works himself, he thought that he might as well read a few for Darksun. Besides, his spirit blade certainly seemed to like them, as much as he tried to deny that fact in what seemed to be an effort to maintain a 'tough guy' image, and if they were truly of the same soul, who knows? Harry thought he just might enjoy the play himself in that case.

It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.


	3. April Fool's Joke

**True A/N:** I uploaded this to _Wizard and Zanpakuto_ April 1st, 2011 as an April Fool's joke, making it out to be the real chapter eight. Some laughed, some raged, some weren't quite sure how to react, but it was all in good fun. Enjoy!

* * *

A/N: Today I did some thinking, and I decided that Wizard and Zanpakuto is just too long, cumbersome, and unweildy for me to continue writing. I'm sorry to have to do this, but I'm discontinuing. Rather than leave it on such a sour hanging note, however, I thought I should at least give you an overview of what the rest of the story might have looked like. Please read it through to the end; I'm sure you'll find it enjoyable.

Thank you!

* * *

Last time, Harry reunited with his parents in the Soul Society and Darksun finally resolves to let Harry in on his past. In the course of several chapters, I had planned to have Darksun train Harry in the use of his power. Since they don't know anything about the Room of Requirement or any other convenient training areas, and since the mindscape proves a poor substitute in the end for these sorts of things, this causes a lot of scorched clearings in the Forbidden Forest, accompanied by a Very Confused Gamekeeper, Terrified Acromantulas, and a Herd of Thestrals who practically worship the ground upon which Harry walks simply on account of being magical death-horses.

Things move on in this manner for some time, until Wormtail escapes the Ministry. The Ministry does a prompt cover-up, pretending Pettigrew had never been found. The press hadn't dug it up yet anyhow, so the public was clueless. Sirius is still on the run as a result and can't take Harry in as planned. Plus, Wormtail does end up returning to Voldemort, as was predicted by Trelawney.

As an upside, though, James and Lily get some disguised gigai and Harry secretly gets to live with them again with Dumbledore's aid. "Snuffles" is their "pet dog."

This is where things get hairy (no pun, I swear).

The Triwizard tournament comes into effect next year. When Harry gets pulled into it by nefarious schemes, Darksun kicks their training up a notch. In a training session accident, they discover that Darksun can give Harry a hollow's mask and powers, similar to a vizard, save that it is only half a mask rather than a whole one at all times.

Harry takes up a habit of haunting Snape in this half-vizard form whenever possible. James eggs him on. Lily despairs. Darksun worries over the possible negative effect the hollow powers might have on Harry. Voldemort plots like crazy and portkeys Harry to the graveyard, upon which he discovers that Harry's blood is a hell of a lot more potent than he ever imagined (it didn't help that due to the fact that Hogwarts somehow makes spirits more visible than they should be, Harry's taken to wearing his soul form and pretending it's his real body during the tasks). The surprise catches Voldemort off guard, allowing Harry to escape with his life and, of course, Cedric's body.

The Ministry is good at cover-ups and so they begin their discrediting Dumbledore and Potter campaign. Sirius and James go out under cover to sniff Pettigrew up if at all possible, the Order of the Phoenix starts. The hollow powers are starting to have an effect on Harry and Darksun, and not a good one; a negative opposite of Harry starts forming in his mindscape and suddenly it's not Darksun who he needs to fear taking over his body at innopportune times. Then Hollow attacks start to frequent the muggle world and little ones even start to breach Hogwarts which has never happened before; Voldemort has gained access to Hueco Mundo (or the British equivelant) and is actually leading Hollows now. He also sets his sights upon the Soul Society he's just learned about and starts to get grand ideas about conquering death.

Harry discovers the prophecy Trelawney gave before his birth. Sirius falls through the veil, but it's only into Soul Society so he comes back in a gigai like Lily and James. Harry gains control of his hollow problem and James and Sirius start teaching him to be an animagus alongside Ron and Hermione, who have recently begun to show signs of developing their own powers – Ron's is armor-based and Hermione's involves her well-worn copy of 'Hogwarts a History.'

Dumbledore doesn't sacrifice himself at the end of Book 6. It doesn't matter if he did; he'd just come back in a gigai after all. Instead, he focuses on tracking down Horcruxes with Harry…and let me tell you, Horcruxes are much easier to seek and destroy if you can 1.) sense souls and 2.) have a soul-slaying sword on hand at all times.

Voldemort launches simultaneous attacks on Soul Society, London proper, and Hogwarts. By using his blood, some of which used to be Harry's soul blood which contains both hollow and reaper powers, Voldemort replicates Aizen's creation of Arrancar, though it's a little roughly.

The ministry of magic falls first, the Center winds up besieged, and Hogwarts shows the most resistance, largely because of Dumbledore (who is the living reincarnation of Merlin), Harry, Hermione, and Ron. The DA also helps, as Harry taught them a few deathspells to take down Hollows with. Voldemort decides he's had enough and shows up at Hogwarts in a new transcendent form.

In the fight that ensues, Harry finally realizes Bankai. Darksun's Bankai has an ultimate attack. In desperation, Harry uses it.

The Dark Sun goes Supernova.

The earth is consumed.

Everyone dies.

The end.

…

**APRIL FOOL'S!**

…

_Please don't kill me._

No, seriously, put down the pitchforks and hear me out. I know, I'm a mean, horrible, despicable excuse for a human being…no, for slime on the bottom of a human being's shoe. I tempted you so long and so torturously and then I dropped this in front of you, and then had the nerve to call it a joke.

Don't worry; this is only up for this one day. I've actually got the next chapter 99 percent finished (needs a little tweaking in the last scene…) and I WILL have it up by tomorrow. I'll also have an accompanying pencil illustration up on my deviantart account as a bonus. That's a promise, people; again, the chapter is almost completely ready for uploading, and the illustration has been languishing in my sketchbook for weeks now.

Since I'll be replacing this with the actual chapter, you might not want to give me your thoughts via the Review system. The thing doesn't allow you to review a chapter twice last I saw, so instead, let me know by PM what a terrible person I am for doing this to you.

Oh, and one last thing, just to stave off any excited inquiries early: Next to none of the events described in this chapter are seriously part of the plot. Harry does not acquire Hollow powers, and neither does Voldemort. Darksun's Bankai does not involve any sort of Supernova or Supernova attack. Harry doesn't gain an animagus form. Lily, James, and Sirius don't come back in gigai (_and I have good reason for it!)_ Voldemort doesn't create Arrancar or become some sort of king of Hueco Mundo to lead hollows against Hogwarts. Harry doesn't teach his fellow classmates Deathspells. He's not going to be charging about Hogwarts (or the TWT, for that matter) bodiless.

As for possibilities…Ron and Hermione might, _might_ gain powers. But probably not. Kubo's been a little confusing regarding powered-up humans: first it's because Ichigo's reiatsu soaked into them so much they adapted to it, then it's because the hogyoku was capable of realizing their wish, now it seems to be that their mothers were attacked by Hollows before they were born and their wholesome pride transforms some precious thing of theirs into a power…confusing. Since Harry doesn't spout reiatsu, there is no hogyoku, and since I don't have either Ron or Hermione spiritually traumatized by a thwarted hollow attack while in the womb, I'd say it's a no at this point.

On the other hand, let's see what other retcons Kubo pulls out of his hat by the time I reach a suitable point in this story for such an event. You never know…

Other possibilities involve character deaths. It depends on how my plot rolls out; I don't have everything set in stone. Sirius and Dumbledore and Dobby and all the others might die…or perhaps the plot changes enough that they won't. I don't plan on following the books precisely – things will be altered soon enough. Of course, I know what you'll all plead for, so I both make no promises and tell you now that whatever my ultimate choice, I shall not be swayed. If I was swayed, nobody'd die except deatheaters…and that's just not quite realistic enough, as much as it hurts to admit the alternative.

Well, I suppose enough's enough.

You'll have the proper chapter tomorrow, and I'll move this little farce over to the Wizard and Zanpakuto Files for posterity's sake.

Valete!


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